Project C is a sci-fi MMO from Thief and Half-Life 2 designers

It's a shared world with a simulated ecosystem.

Darewise, the company founded by Thief designer Randy Smith and Half-Life 2 artist Viktor Antonov, announced its first game this week, after switching from publishing to game development. It’s going by Project C at the moment, and it’s a single-shard sci-fi MMO.

“Project C is the first step of this ambitious journey, to become a quality-first independent company, competing in the AAA field with truly innovative experiences,” said Darewise’s CEO Benjamin Charbi. “Our inspiration comes from companies such as Pixar or Bungie, who have been committed to quality and amazing company culture since day one.”

It sounds pretty elaborate, with a simulated ecosystem that contains creatures and resources, the ability for players to permanently change the world and a focus on emergent moments backed up by new chapters in the world’s story. Of course it’s also very vague, and they’re boasts we’ve seen from plenty of MMOs before.

Last month, Darewise teamed up with Improbable, creators of the SpatialOS game platform, presumably for Project C, suggesting that it's still very early days. Here’s a bunch of gibberish about SpatialOS:

“Improbable’s SpatialOS is a distributed, cloud-based platform for game development that integrates with and augments existing workflows, engines and tools. By removing computational barriers to game design, SpatialOS enables developers to create previously impossible games that boast massive, persistent and richly simulated virtual worlds.”

Details are sparse at the moment, but keep an eye on the official site if you’ve got a hunger for a new MMO.

Fraser is the sole inhabitant of PC Gamer's mythical Scottish office, conveniently located in his flat. He spends most of his time wrangling the news, but sometimes he sneaks off to write lots of words about strategy games.